Gowda (also known as Gauda or Gouda) is a honorific or surname from Karnataka in India. It is a surname used by Vokkaliga community in South Karnataka region.

Gowda was originally a honorific used by the administrative head of a village. Typically, such a head owns lands and holds political and social power in the village.

Now, Gowda is also used as a hereditary surname by descendants of the village chiefs. Variants of the surname include Gowder or Gauder or Gowdar (usually in North Karnataka and Nilgiris) and Gowdru (honorific, plural).

According to a popular theory, the word Gowda derives from go, the Sanskrit word for cow. However, German Indologist Gustav Oppert derived it from a Dravidian word meaning.